NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : A COACHING TRIANGLE : Raveling Is the Odd Man Out When Olson’s Arizona Team Takes On Davis’ Iowa Squad

Does George Raveling, now out traveling the highways and byways in search of players for his struggling USC basketball team, gnash his teeth and beat his head against the wall when he sees all those Iowa players he recruited still playing in the West Regional of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. basketball tournament?

Is he eating his heart out, wondering why he ever left the throngs of hoop-crazed fans at Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the serenity of the Sports Arena?

He says he has no regrets.

Raveling left Iowa to Coach Tom Davis for many of the same reasons that Arizona Coach Lute Olson had earlier left Iowa to Raveling. Too much of a good thing. Too many zealous fans. Too much attention.

Raveling calls the Iowa coaching job “the best job I ever had” in terms of basketball, but not the best way of life for him. After three years of talking basketball to fans who recognized him everywhere he went in Iowa, year around, Raveling sought refuge in the big city. But Hawkeye fans still find him in Zurich, or on the streets of Hong Kong.

Olson, too, has always contended: “The best thing about Iowa basketball is the fans, and the worst thing about Iowa basketball is the fans.”

When Olson was coaching in Iowa, he built a home on a lake outside Iowa City, only to find Hawkeye fans pulling their boats up to his dock to speak with him.

Davis, who left Stanford to take the Iowa job, is holding up well in the glare of the spotlight.

But then, as his starting center, Ed Horton, said Thursday afternoon, “It’s really hard to assess how much pressure people are putting on you when you’re having success.”

Davis took Iowa by storm last season, bringing in his full-court pressure defense and his fast-break offense, using the full complement of players that Raveling left him, and, along the way, picking up a school-record 30 victories, for which he was named coach of the year by the Associated Press.

Huge contingents from both Iowa and Arizona are expected here tonight at the Kingdome when Iowa (24-9) and Arizona (33-2) meet in the second game of the West Regional at 7 p.m. Michigan (26-7) and North Carolina (26-6) will play the opener at 5.

Raveling said he had no qualms about leaving such stars as Roy Marble and B.J. Armstrong to play for another coach. At least, he didn’t worry about what was to become of them.

“It was like an Allstate thing,” Raveling said. “They were in good hands with Tom Davis.”

Raveling thinks the coaching change was good for everyone.

“I think maybe Tom’s personality fits the Iowa job better than mine, or even Lute’s,” he said. “It’s a high visibility job. High visibility. A poll in Iowa asked who were the most important people in the state. The answer came out: The football coach at Iowa, the basketball coach at Iowa and the governor. In that order.”

Davis is a people person who doesn’t seem to be bothered by pressure.

Neither Raveling nor Olson exactly faded away after leaving Iowa. Although Raveling is still trying to turn the USC program around, he is working in a major media market. And Olson, by getting the Arizona program turned around very quickly, has brought back the sellout crowds in Tucson.

Olson is hearing the same adoring chant of “Lu-u-u-te” when he takes the court that he heard at Iowa. He actively courted these fans and he takes a great pride in the Wildcat backers.

The difference, he says, is in the Arizona fans’ perspective and appreciation.

Olson took a lot of heat when he got the Hawkeyes to the Final Four in 1980 but came home without the NCAA title. After finishing 21-7, 21-8 and 21-10 over the next three seasons--which included tournament berths every year--but still no NCAA title, Olson was labeled as a coach who couldn’t win the big game.

In this game, the pressure on Olson is not so much to prove himself but to save the reputation of the Pacific 10.

So who will Raveling be pulling for? After all, Davis is still using eight players recruited by Raveling.

“I’ll have mixed emotions,” Raveling said. “Against any other team I’d be for Iowa, because of those kids. But this time my heart has to be with Arizona, for the sake of the Pac-10. We’ve taken so much grief this year, and I don’t think it’s warranted.

“People act like the Pac-10 has a terminal disease, but I think it will survive, with some proper care.

“Sure, basketball in the Midwest is stronger right now. Big Ten basketball is very strong. But I don’t think West Coast basketball is as bad as people say it is. I think Arizona can show that. The West needs that kind of a shot in the arm.

“I saw (Seton Hall Coach) P.J. Carlesimo being quoted, talking about Arizona, saying the same things I’ve been saying about Arizona all year. That Arizona can play any kind of a game you want. Slow, fast, inside, outside. It’s a great team and I think it will show some people what kind of basketball we’ve been up against in our conference.”

Of course, Raveling would want to defend the Pac-10. He has gone from the Pac-10 at Washington State to the Big Ten at Iowa and back again, to USC. There seems to be a well worn path linking the Pac-10 and that Iowa job.

Oregon State Coach Ralph Miller coached at Iowa from 1965-70. Dick Schultz, now the executive director of the NCAA, was there from 1971-74. But then it was Olson, and then Raveling.

Raveling was recommended by Oregon State assistant Lanny Van Eman. And Davis, then at Stanford, was recommended by Olson, then at Arizona.

Much is being made about the fact that Olson will be facing a team that he left just five years ago. But he points out that he did not coach any of these players. And Arizona guard Steve Kerr points out emotional game was the one that the team played at Iowa City last December. That was Olson’s return in front of 15,500 Hawkeye fans.

Davis said that he was very pleased that the Hawkeye fans greeted Olson warmly: “I am the first to applaud the fans for the way they welcomed Lute Olson. When a guy leaves, for whatever reason, I think it’s important that the fans remember how much of himself he put into a program over the years that he was there. Some fans can be quick to say, ‘What have you done for us lately?’ So I was pleased that our fans greeted him the way they did.”

Asked Thursday about the reaction of Hawkeye fans to him lately, Olson said, with a smile, “Most of the correspondence I’ve received this week has been very positive. ‘Go Cats! Go Hawks!’ Everybody just wishes it were the Final Four instead of here.”

West Regional Notes

The four teams in this regional started out seeded No. 1 (Arizona), No. 2 (North Carolina), No. 3 (Michigan) and No. 5 (Iowa). The No. 4 seed, UNLV, was eliminated by Iowa last week, 104-86. . . . Arizona Coach Lute Olson said that he thought the four teams in this regional would make a fine Final Four field. “When I saw the bracket and saw that we had 7 teams in the top 17 in the AP poll I thought, ‘Well, either the writers (who vote in the AP poll) don’t know what they’re talking about, or the (NCAA selection) committee doesn’t pay any attention to the writers.” . . . North Carolina Coach Dean Smith agreed that the West Regional was loaded, and he got in one last jab at the committee by saying, “We would have been glad to play in the regional at Chapel Hill.” . . . The Michigan-North Carolina game tonight will match one of the strongest teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference against one of the strongest teams in the Big Ten. . . . Michigan forward Glen Rice sprained a knee in practice Wednesday but is expected to play.

North Carolina guard Jeff Lebo has a stress fracture in his left leg that is painful, but he can play on it. . . . Big men Terry Mills of Michigan and J.R. Reid of North Carolina are trying to downplay the buildup of their head-to-head competition. And Michigan Coach Bill Frieder said: “It’s a healthy rivalry because they’re both good kids and respect each other.” . . . Reid is has become an All-American as a sophomore. . . . Michigan lost to North Carolina in the NCAA tournament last season, 109-97. . . . North Carolina has held its last five opponents to their worst shooting percentages of the year. Loyola Marymount shot 32.1%, North Texas State 33.3%, Maryland 36.7% in the semifinals of the ACC tournament, Duke 36.8% in the ACC tournament final, and Wake Forest 37.9% in the quarterfinals. . . . The Arizona-Iowa game tonight is a rematch of one that Arizona won at Iowa last December, 66-59. Arizona is still starting the same lineup--it hasn’t changed all season--but the Iowa lineup got smaller and quicker when 6-foot 9-inch, 225-pound center Al Lorenzen went out with a back injury. Ed Horton, 6-8 and 230, starts at center for the Hawkeyes. . . . Michigan’s Mills said Thursday: “If Iowa plays the way they played us in the last game, then I will pick Iowa over Arizona.”